AAMC CI Reporting

Purpose

This page is intended to outline the configuration and setup requirements for an Elentra organization to generate compatible AAMC CI reports for submission via the AAMC CI Portal.

Current supported version of the Medbiquitious CI Standard: V. 10

Background

The AAMC encourages participitating schools to it regularly report on the school’s offered curriculum (Curriculum Inventory) by submitting a generated curriculum data file.

Schools may generate this file a number of ways, including:

• Using an in house system to create the file

• Using a vendor supplied curriculum management system to create the file

Schools may submit the file a number of ways, including:

• Using an in house system to automatically upload the file to the AAMC

• Having the vendor upload the file on behalf of the school using the AAMC Vendor CI Portal

• The school themselves uploading the file using the AAMC CI Portal

The submitted curriculum data file is of XML file type.

References

Reference
AAMC CI Business Rules
AAMC CI Portal
AAMC Curriculum Inventory Data File XSD
AAMC Curriculum Inventory Overview
AAMC Curriculum Inventory Technical User Guide
Elentra Learn #20 AAMC Curriculum Inventory Report
Medbiquitous CI Specification V10 (Draft)
Orientation to the AAMC Curriculum Inventory (CI)

Setup and Configurations

Organization Settings

To generate AAMC CI Reports, Elentra requires that the Organization containing the information to export have certain AAMC required fields set in the Organization settings:

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Curriculum Mapping and Hierarchy

AAMC Physician Competencies Reference Set (PCRS) Mapping

The AAMC CI report requires that Program Level Curriculum Tags (referred to as Learning Objectives by the AAMC) used and set in Elentra are mapped to a corresponding AAMC Curriculum Tag. By default, the AAMC Curriculum Tag Set is included by default, labelled ‘AAMC Physician Competencies Reference Set’.

In addition, the mapping must be done from the domain level AAMC Curriculum Tag (lowest level Curriculum Tags in Elentra).

Mapping MUST be done FROM the AAMC Curriculum Tag Set. That is, this AAMC Curriculum Tag Set selected, then for each low level item, mapped to the Curriculum Tags assigned to the Courses outputted in the report.

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NOTE: Ensure that NO Map Version is selected. Elentra will not output Curriculum Tags if mapping is done using a Map Version.

Curriculum Hierarchy Overview

The AAMC also strongly recommends that a three level hierarchy exist, and as above, AAMC domain level Curriculum Tags (i.e. AAMC PCRS) as follows:

AAMC Recommended Curriculum Hierarchy

AAMC Recommended Curriculum Hierarchy

NOTE: Not having the three level hierarchy underneath the AAMC PCRS will generate a valid CI file that passes AAMC validation, however the generated AAMC validation report will be missing certain data.

Curriculum Hierarchy Setup

The above mentioned Curriculum Hierarchy can be setup in Elentra in two ways:

1. Individual Curriculum Tag Sets

   • Individual Curriculum Tag Sets can be created in Elentra, and the containing Curriculum Tags Mapped from the Curriculum Tag Set containing the Program Objectives, to the Curriculum Tag Set containing the Course Objectives, to the Curriculum Tag Set Containing the Event Objects

   • The resulting Curriculum Tag Mapping Report may then look like the following, where each of the bottom three levels corresponding to a single Program Objective mapped to a Course Objective mapped to an Event Objective, as examples.
2. Hierachy Built into Single Curriculum Tag Set

   • Alternately, the hierachy can be built into a single Curriculum Tag Set, for example:

   

   • In the above example, ‘Application of Basic Sciences’ would be a single Program Objective, ‘ME1.1 Homeostatis & Dysregulation’ a single Course Objective, and ‘ME1.1a’ an Event Objective

Courses and Events Objectives

Once the Curriculum Map Hierarchy is setup, Courses and Events should be assigned the required objectives. Curriculum Tag Sets for Courses and Events should only be set for those specifically.

Curriculum Tag Sets are outputted to the AAMC CI Report and assigned only one of the following categories:

• program-level-competency: If the parent Curriculum Tag Set was selected as a ‘Program Level Objective’ OR if the individual Curriculum Tags in the CompetencyObject was mapped from an AAMC PCRS Curriculum Tag

• sequence-block-level-competency: Not a program-level-competency, and the Curriculum Tag was assigned to the Course (whether or not it was assigned to an Event)

• event-level-competency: Not a program-level-competency or a sequence-block-level-competency, and the Curriculum Tag was assigned to an Event but not to any Course

Therefore, if a Course Level Objective Curriculum Tag was assigned to both Courses and Events, it will only be set a category of sequence-block-level-competency. Although this type of issue will pass AAMC validation, the generated report will not contain the required information mapping Events to a Learning Objective if the Event is not associated to an Event Level Objective, and if that Objective is not mapped from a Course Level Objective, and if that Course Level Objective is not mapped from a Program Level Objective, as described above in the Curriculum Hierarchy section.

Course Objectives

Course Objectives are set in the ‘Curriculum Tags’ section of Course Administration. From this view, any Curriculum Tag can be assigned as a Course Objective:

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Event Objectives

Event Objectives are set in the ‘Curriculum Tags’ section of Event Administration. From this view, any Curriculum Tag can be assigned as an Event Objective:

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NOTE: On first use, the Filter for the Curriculum Tag Set menu may be set to ‘Course’, which limits the selection of Curriculum Tag Sets to those set in as Course Objectives only. This filter must be cleared to allow selection of Event Objectives from other Curriculum Tag Sets not set for the Course (i.e. if the Program-Course-Event hierarchy consists of multiple Curriculum Tag Sets).

Event Medbiquitous Methods

Elentra can assigned three types in Medbiquitous Methods when writing data to the AAMC CI report for each Event:

• Instructional Method

  • Mapped for each Elentra Event Type, such that the Instructional Method written for the Event in the CI report corresponds to that set for the Event’s Event Type in Elentra.

  • Results in the Event containing sub element ‘InstructionalMethod’ for each Medbiquitous Instructional Method for each of the Event’s Event Types.

• Assessment Method

  • Mapped for each Elentra Gradebook Assessment Characteristic if gradebook assesments are assigned to the Event, otherwise may be set manually for each Event

  • Results in the Event containing sub element ‘AssessmentMethod’ for of the Event’s selected or assigned Medbiquitous Assessment Methods.

• Resource Method

  • Set manually for each Event

  • Results in the Event containing sub element ‘ResourceType’ for each selected Medbiquitous Resource Method.

Medbiquitous Methods can be viewed, and the Assessment and Resource Methods set manually, in the Elentra Event Content page:

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Note that one of Instructional or Assessment Method is required for the Event to be written to the AAMC CI Report.

If a Learning Event has:

• Event Type mapped to a Medbiquitous Instructional Method AND

• No Assessment Method assigned THEN

• Then it will appear in the AAMC CI Report with only an Instructional Method

If a Learning Event has:

• Event Type NOT mapped to any Medbiquitous Instructional Method AND

• Assessment Method assigned THEN

• Then it will appear in the CI Report with only an Assessment Method

If a Learning Event has:

• Event Type mapped to a Medbiquitous Instructional Method AND

• Assessment Method assigned THEN

• Then it will appear in the CI Report with BOTH an Instructional Method and Assessment Method

Event Assessment Methods

Elentra has two ways in which an Assessment Method is set in the AAMC CI report for an Event:

1. If a Gradebook Assessment is assigned to a Learning Event, then:

   1. The AAMC CI report will contain the Event with the Assessment Method set to that mapped for the Gradebook Assessment set Characteristic

   2. The Event Title in the AAMC CI report will contain the Assessment’s Name instead of the Event Title

   3. Any Assessment Methods set in the Event’s Content page will be added to the AAMC CI report for the Event as additional Assessment Methods

2. If no Gradebook Assessment is assigned to a Learning Event, then:

   1. Any Assessment Methods set in the Event’s Content page will be added to the AAMC CI report for the Event as additional Assessment Methods

These two ways are made available due to the two different assumptions some schools make, where the first of the above options assumes a Learning Event is itself an Assessment in that Learners are being assessed on what they learned in the past, whereas the second assumes that the Learning Event is an Instructional one and will be assessed by the set Assessment method at some point in the future.

Report Generation

Elentra AAMC CI Report Generation Process

The Elentra platform allows the AAMC CI report to be generated by selecting Admin → System Reports → AAMC Curriculum Inventory Reporting, which opens the following page:

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Selecting to create a new report displays the following:

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Field	Description	Required?
Reporting Period	Auto generated to display four calendar year periods, each from July 1st to June 30th, where the first year is calculated as follows, the the other three period being for the previous years before it: If the current month is before July First Period = July 1st in Previous Year to June 30 Current Year Else First Period = July 1st in Current Year to June 30 Next Year	Y
Report Title	Title of report being generated. Outputed to the Report itself (Title element), and displayed for the Report in the above AAMC Curriculum Inventory Reports pages	Y
Report Description	Description of report being generated. Outputed to the Report itself (Description element), and displayed for the Report in the above AAMC Curriculum Inventory Reports page	N
Supporting Link	Supporting Link describing the Curriculum. Outputed to the Report itself (SupportingLink element).	N
Academic Levels & Learners	Used to select a representative learner for each academic level. Courses and Events assigned to the representative learner will be exported to the report generated, for the selected academic level (i.e. curriculum period).	Y
Program Level Objectives	Selected curriculum tag sets as program level objectives will include them (if also selected in ‘Allowed Curriculum Tag Sets’ as program level objectives in the generated report (i.e. corresponding Competency Object containing a Category attribute 'program-level-competency’)	N
Allowed Curriculum Tag Sets	Used to limit what curriculum tag sets are included in the report as objectives. Selected curriculum tag sets must contain curriculum tags mapped FROM ALL AAMC Curriculum Tags (i.e. AAMC Physician Competencies Reference Set).	N

AAMC CI XML Report Structure

The generate AAMC CI XML Report will contain the following elements:

Element	Description
CurriculumInventory	Top level element. Must be the only top level element and contain the attributes indicating specific versions.
ReportID	Contains a uniquely generated identifier for the generate report
Institution	Contains attributes describing the institution generating the report: - InstitutionName: Contains the set organization’s ‘AAMC Institution Name’ in System Settings - InstitutionID: Contains the set organization’s ‘AAMC Institution ID’ in System Settings - Address: Contains the set organization’s address in System Settings
Program	Contains sub elements for describing the Program
Program/ProgramName	Contains the set organization’s ‘AAMC Program Name’ in System Settings
Program/ProgramID	Contains the set organization’s ‘AAMC Program ID’ in System Settings
Title	Report title as set in the AAMC CI report generation form
ReportDate	Date the report was generated
ReportingStartDate	Start date of the selected Reporting Period
ReportingEndDate	End date of the selected Reporting Period
Language	Report language. Set to ‘en-us’ by deafult in the Elentra database for each created report.
Description	Report description as set in the AAMC CI report generation form
SupportingLink	Supporting link as set in the AAMC CI report generation form
Events	Contains sub elements for each Event included in the report, corresponding to the Events assigned to the selected representative learner in the AAMC CI report generation form
Event	Contains an attribute for a Learning Event’s ID, and sub elements describing the Learning Event. Note: The ID will be in one of the following formats: - E#: Single occurance of this Event where # corresponds to
Event/Title	Learning Event’s Title
Event/EventDuration	Learning Event’s Duration, as set in the Learning Event’s Content page (Duration field)
Event/Description	Learning Event’s Description, as set in the Learning Event’s Content page
Event/Keyword	MeSH keyword assigned to the Event in the Learning Event’s Content page Note: To be able to set Keywords to Events, ensure the optional Course keywords feature has been enabled by following the steps outlined here.
Event/CompetencyObjectReference	Contains a reference to a CompetencyObject in the AAMC CI file under element Expectations. Competency Objects correspond to Curriculum Tags. Event/CompetencyObjectReference therefore refer to Curriculum Tags assigned to Events in the Learning Event’s Content page
Event/ResourceType	Medbiquitous Resource Code corresponding to set Medbiquitous Resources in the Learning Event’s Content page
Event/InstructionalMethod	Medbiquitous Instructional Method corresponding to assigned Medbiquitous Instructional Method for the Learning Event’s Event Type
Event/AssessmentMethod	Medbiquitous Assessment Method corresponding to assigned Medbiquitous Assessment Method for the Learning Event’s assigned Gradebook Assessment, or manually set in the Learning Event’s Content page (see Event Assessment Methods section above)
Expectations	Contains sub elements for each CompetencyObject and CompetencyFramework.
Expectations/CompetencyObject	Correspondonds to a Curriculum Tag. Will include each Curriculum Tag in all Curriculum Tag Sets enabled for the Organization if selected in the AAMC CI report generation form’s ‘Allowed Curriculum Tag Sets’ field. In addition, each Curriculum Tag assigned to Courses and Events will also be included, if not already included in the above retreived Curriculum Tag Sets, as long as they also belong to the allowed Curriculum Tag Sets selected during report generation. This is to ensure we don’t have a CompetencyObjectReference elsewhere in the AAMC CI xml file without a corresponding CompetencyObject here, which will result in errors on submitting to the AAMC CI portal. Each CompetencyObject is also assigned a Category: - program-level-competency: If the parent Curriculum Tag Set was selected as a ‘Program Level Objective’ OR if the individual Curriculum Tags in the CompetencyObject was mapped from an AAMC PCRS Curriculum Tag - sequence-block-level-competency: Not a program-level-competency, and the Curriculum Tag was assigned to the Course (whether or not it was assigned to an Event) - event-level-competency: Not a program-level-competency or a sequence-block-level-competency, and the Curriculum Tag was assigned to an Event but not to any Course If none of the above conditions are met, the category defaults to sequence-block-level-competency Note: Each Curriculum Tag’s nested Curriculum Tags will also be included recursively.
Expectations/CompetencyFramework	Includes sub elements for cf:Includes and cf:Relation depending on Curriculum Tag mappings to AAMC Curriculum Tags.
Expections/CompetencyFramework/cf:Includes	Corresponds to: - An AAMC domain level Curriculum Tag (i.e. lowest level Curriculum Tag in the Curriculum Tag Set ‘AAMC Physician Competencies Reference Set’) that has been mapped to a Curriculum Tag in the included Events and Course (i.e. Event and Course objectives) OR - Curriculum Tags belonging to a Curriculum Tag Set selected as ‘Allowed’ in the AAMC CI report generation form
Expections/CompetencyFramework/cf:Relation	Corresponds to a mapping from the AAMC Curriculum Tag to a Curriculum Tag set for Courses and Events
AcademicLevels	Corresponds to the selected Academic Levels (i.e. Curriculum Layouts) in the report generation form. Note: Only Academic Levels for Curriculum Layouts containing Learning Events included in the report for the selected representative learners will be included here
AcademicLevels/LevelsInProgram	Number of Academic Levels as described above
AcademicLevels/Level	Corresponds to a specific Academic Level, as described above
AcademicLevels/Level/Label	Label for Academic Level as set for the Curriculum Layout
AcademicLevels/Level/Description	Description for Academic Level as set for the Curriculum Layout
Sequence	Parent element for SequenceBlock elements
Sequence/SequenceBlock	Corresponds to a Course containing the included Learning Events in the report
Sequence/SequenceBlock/Title	Corresponds to the Course Title set in the Elentra Course Management
Sequence/SequenceBlock/Description	Corresponds to the Course Description set in the Elentra Course Management
Sequence/SequenceBlock/Timing	Contains the Course Timing elements
Sequence/SequenceBlock/Timing/Duration	Corresponds to the Course Duration in number of days. E.g. P120D refers to 120 days. Duration is calculated as follows: - Non Clerkship Course or Clerkship Course without Rotations: Duration between earliest and latest containing Learning Events - Legacy Clerkship Course with Rotations: Duration between earliest and latest Clerkship events (i.e. events in events table of legacy Clerkship database), for the Course’s rotations, within the repoting period - Clerkship Course with Rotations: Duration between earliest and latest rotation Note: AAMC Note on Start/End Dates: Start and end dates. The AAMC CI collects curriculum from the previous academic year, so to upload your CI data in August 2021, your course start and end dates will generally fall between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. While your CI reporting dates will be July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, it is acceptable if some content within your CI (e.g., academic levels, courses) fall outside those bounds. For example, while the academic year begins July 1, 2020, you may have clerkship courses which begin in May 2020, and you should go ahead and include this in your CI.
Sequence/SequenceBlock/Timing/Dates	Corresponds to the Course Period
Sequence/SequenceBlock/Timing/Dates/StartDate	Corresponds to the Course’s Start Date, as described above for the Sequence/SequenceBlock/Timing/Duration element
Sequence/SequenceBlock/Timing/Dates/EndDate	Corresponds to the Course’s End Date, as described above for the Sequence/SequenceBlock/Timing/Duration element
Sequence/SequenceBlock/SequenceBlockLevels	Contains the references to the Academic Levels (i.e. Curriculum Layout) for the Course, defined in the AcademicLevels element above
Sequence/SequenceBlock/SequenceBlockLevels/StartingAcademicLevel	Reference to the Starting Academic Level (i.e. Curriculum Layouts) for the Course, defined in the AcademicLevels element above
Sequence/SequenceBlock/SequenceBlockLevels/EndingAcademicLevel	Reference to the Ending Academic Level (i.e. Curriculum Layouts) for the Course, defined in the AcademicLevels element above
Sequence/SequenceBlock/ClerkshipModel	Set for Clerkship courses (i.e. Courses with ‘clinical_course’ field set, determined by the selection to the ‘Clinical Experience’ setting in Elentra’s Course Administration page). In Elentra, set to ‘rotation’ for these Courses, otherwise this element is not included at all.
Sequence/SequenceBlock/CompetencyObjectReference	Contains a reference to a CompetencyObject in the AAMC CI file under element Expectations. Competency Objects correspond to Curriculum Tags. Sequence/SequenceBlock/CompetencyObjectReference therefore refer to Curriculum Tags assigned to Courses in the Course Adminstration page.
Sequence/SequenceBlock/SequenceBlockEvent	Contains a reference, for a containing Learning Event for the Course, to an Event defined in the Events element in the report.

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Troubleshooting Submission Errors

Errors with AAMC CI files fall into the following main categories:

• File Structure Validation

  • This is the first check done by the AAMC CI portal upon submission and ensures that major required elements exist in the CI XML file. The portal checks against a defined XSD available here.

  • Errors appear as a modal on submission, for example:

    
  • These errors can be validated before submission by validating the generated CI file against the XSD using an XML validator, or via command line: xmllint --noout --schema curriculuminventory.xsd <AAMC_CI_XML>.xml

• Business Rules Validation

  • This check is done after submission to ensure the file contents meet the AAMC’s defined CI Business Rules

  • Details on errors with a submission can be found by selecting ‘Submission error: AAMC CI Business Rules’ in the Activity History for the required school, then clicking the ‘Export’ Button.

  
• Data Issues

  • Even if the above two validations pass, depending on the data in the file, the AAMC may not process the file in a way to produce the required information for AAMC accreditation. This form of error is harder to detect and depends largely on the Elentra Curriculum Mapping configuration

• Possible specific issues include:\

  Category	Error Message / Issue	Possible Issue
  File Structure Validation	One of ‘../CompetencyObject’ expected	CompetencyObject references to a Curriculum Tag. Reason why this error might occur when generating a CI from Elentra include: - In the Elentra AAMC report generation form, the Course assign Curriculum Tag was not selected as a ‘Program Level Objective’ or in the selected ‘Allowed Curriculum Tag Sets’, or the Course does not have the expected Curriculum Tags assigned - Elentra does not output Curriculum Tags mapped to an AAMC Curriculum Tag, if mapping is done with a Map Version selected.
  File Structure Validation	cvc-complex-type.2.4.b: The content of element 'SequenceBlock' is not complete. One of '{"http://ns.medbiq.org/curriculuminventory/v10/":CompetencyObjectReference, "http://ns.medbiq.org/curriculuminventory/v10/":Precondition, "http://ns.medbiq.org/curriculuminventory/v10/":Postcondition, "http://ns.medbiq.org/curriculuminventory/v10/":SequenceBlockEvent, "http://ns.medbiq.org/curriculuminventory/v10/":SequenceBlockReference}' is expected.	A ‘SequenceBlock’ corresponds to a Course. This errors may refer to the Course not containing any included Events, possibly due to: - The Course being a Clinical Experience one, and no Events existing within the Learner’s Rotation periods This may also refer to the the Course not being assigned any Course Objectives (i.e. Curriculum Tag assignments in Course Administration within Elentra)
  Business Rules Validation	The program-level competency object ... does not have a corresponding 'Relation' tag that relates it to a PCRS.	- Course assigned Curriculum Tag has not been mapped from an AAMC domain level objective, which in Elentra correspond to the lowest level Curriculum Tag in the ‘AAMC Physician Competencies Reference Set’ Curriculum Tag. - Elentra does not output Curriculum Tags mapped to an AAMC Curriculum Tag, if mapping is done with a Map Version selected.
  Data Issues	Verification Report’s Tables 6/7/9 Empty or Missing Data with Learning Objectives linked to Events or Courses	In the AAMC Verification Report, tables 6 and 7 require that the Events are assigned Event Level Objectives, and that the three level hierarchy of Learning Objectives have been set. See section ‘Curriculum Hierarchy**’** above for more details.
  Data Issues	Course marked as ‘Clinical’ does not contain expected Events	Learning Events in Clinical Experience Courses are only included in the AAMC CI report if they fall within a Rotation period of the representative learner selected. If an Event falls outside that range, it will not be included in the report. Additionally, if a Clinical Experience Course does not contain any Rotations, it and it’s containing Learning Events will not be included in the AAMC CI report at all.
  Elentra Setup	Unable to find Event Objectives to assign to Learning Events	Ensure the Curriculum Tags filter for the Event is cleared, as opposed to being set to ‘Course’ which only displays Curriculum Tag Sets set for the Event’s Course.
  Elentra Setup	Specific Events not found in generated CI data file and Verification Report	Events are included if they have either an Assessment or Instructional Method assigned to them. Event’s without a valid Assessment or Instructional (i.e. Assessment or Instructional method with a valid Medbiquitous code) will not be included in the generated AAMC CI file as it would generate an error on submission to the AAMC portal.
  Elentra Setup	No option to set Event Keywords in Elentra for inclusion in the AAMC CI Report.	Ensure the optional Course keywords feature has been enabled by following the steps outlined here.